This bronze was cast from the plaster bust of Frederic Leighton presented to the National Portrait Gallery in 1922 by the son of Thomas Brock. Frederick Brock stressed that it was his father’s wish that this work, along with a bust of Joseph Lister (NPG 1958) presented at the same time, should be delivered to the nation. The bronze was commissioned by the Gallery in 1923 and executed through the Cast Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum for £55. In a letter of November 1922, the manager of the department suggests the proposed course of production: ‘I think that to obtain the best result, it would be for the head to be cast only at the Foundry, and then brought here to be finished in the desired colour’.[1]